Titus Kaphar
The Vesper Project
Until October 11, 2015.
Contemporary Arts Center
Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center
for Contemporary Art, 44 E. 6th Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
About:
History painting, excavation and iconoclasm meet in the work of American artist Titus Kaphar as he interrogates the racial skeletons of art history. The Vesper Project is a massive, multi-part installation in which paintings are woven into the walls of a 19th century American house. It is the culmination of a five-year engagement with the lost storylines of the Vespers, a 19th century family who “passed” as a white family in New England even as their mixed heritage made them “Negro” in the eyes of the law. In this project the members of this family and their histories are entwined with Kaphar’s reformulated biography, razing and rebuilding once sturdy foundations of the past. (press release)
About II:
While staring at a painting by artist Titus Kaphar at the Yale Art Gallery, a man named Benjamin Vesper experienced a psychotic break and attacked one of the figures in the painting. Vesper was arrested and subsequently admitted to the Connecticut Valley Hospital where his full identity and background remained a mystery. During the course of his sessions with a psychologist, Vesper began to reveal details about himself and his family’s troubled history. Vesper remained secretive about the letters and documents he wrote to Kaphar.
In 2008, Vesper wandered off the hospital grounds, and was found squatting in a 19th century house that he insisted belonged to his family. In fact, the original Vesper home had burned down in the early 1900s. It seems Mr. Vesper needed such a space to return to, in order to engage with his own memory. It was this event that inspired “The Vesper Project” installation.
This exhibition includes art works inspired by the patient’s frequent correspondence with Kaphar.
(text on site artist)